Wake Up

Hi guys. So I’m just so excited and couldn’t wait to get to 150 views before I updated again. So still on my previous works book tour, here’s a story I put a lot of effort into: Wake up- a short story by Bello Olabisi. Enjoy! Feel free to share with friends and repost. 200 views is the goal now.

WAKE UP

If you had a friend you knew you would never see again, what would you say? If you could do one last thing for someone you love, what would it be? Say it; do it; don’t wait…Nothing lasts forever.” – One Tree Hill

The sound of my heartbeat is the only thing I hear as I grudgingly walk towards the counter. I slowly raise my eyes from the ground to face the annoyed face of the old nurse. Her face clears of all annoyance as she sees the expression on my face. I don’t even know what expression I have on. All I know is I have never felt this afraid before.
“What can I do for you, dear?” she asks straightening her glasses.
“I’m here to see Alice. Alice Ray. I got a call informing me of her…”
I can’t go on. The words can’t come out of my mouth no matter how I hard I try. The nurse gives a nod of understanding and says
“Go down until you reach the passage. She is in the second room to your left.”
I murmur a quiet “thank you” and set out for the room. Before I move, she holds my hand and says
“Are you sure you are in the right state of mind to see her? Do you need a moment?”
A moment won’t do anything for me. A moment can’t change what happened. I had enough moments in the taxi on my way here. All I need now is to see her even if it breaks my heart. I just need to see her.
“I will be fine. Thank you.”
I continue walking but with my heart constricting with each step. I reach the first door.
The little voice in my head whispers “You’ll be fine.”
I stand in front of her door.
“At least she’s alive.”
I slowly open the door and walk in still looking down.
“1…2…3” I whisper, closing the door behind me, before raising my head.
Nothing –absolutely nothing– could have prepared me for the sight before me. I feel like the wind has been knocked out of me. I can’t breathe and I desperately search for the door handle for support. I bend over, clutching my chest, and watch my tears splatter on the white tiles.
That can’t be Alice. There is no way that is Alice. Maybe I entered the wrong room. But deep down, I know that isn’t true.
I restrain my wails as I lift my head back up to see her once again. I still haven’t found the courage to walk over to her bedside, so I just sit on the floor and watch my best friend lie helplessly on the bedspread.
From head to toe, there is no other word to describe the way she looks right now apart from–AWFUL. Her head and arms are bandaged; her legs are in casts; and her neck is in a brace. Only her face is left exposed and it is nothing to write home about. Her face looks so pale and bruised that I wouldn’t have recognized her if we didn’t spend the greater part of our lives together up until the day I tore our friendship apart, the day I ruined everything, the day I wish I could take back.
I pick myself up from the ground and stealthily trod to her bedside. I don’t know why I’m trying to be quiet. Maybe I don’t want her to wake from the coma and see me here. I sit on the cold plastic chair beside her and place my hand carefully on her arm. Seeing her this close, I start to cry again.
“I’m sorry, Alice.” I whisper quietly.
I take a deep breath because I am only answered by the beeps of the heart machine. I don’t know why I was expecting some sort of response or hand twitch or even a smile. This isn’t a movie or a piece of fiction: this is my reality, and I can’t change it.
“We should have never ended things the way we did. Now I know that the fight was so stupid. We were just being stupid. I wish I could change that day. Better yet, I wish that I could have saved that car from smashing into yours or at least been there to calm your fears.”
More tears slide down my face as I grip her arm tighter.
“It’s all my fault, Ray-Ray.” I blurt out.
“How cliché it is that this all started with a boy. But it actually didn’t. Eric was just my excuse to lash out. You would always try to guide me, help me, and put me through in everything that I did. But I was jealous, oh so jealous. You seemed to have a perfect life, and I felt inferior to you. Always the sidekick to the Alice stardom. So when you warned me against Eric and against all the new behaviors he was bringing out in me, I reached my pushing point and yelled. I yelled and yelled and yelled until you cried and cried. I didn’t just yell; I also insulted you and picked on the weaknesses you confided me with. It was awful of me to do such and I realized that a long time ago. The more you tried to reach out to me, the more I pushed you away because your good nature made you seem even more perfect. And when things unraveled with Eric and I caught him cheating, I let my stupid ego get in the way. I didn’t want to admit that you were right, so I kept avoiding your calls. Then one day you stopped calling, texting, and stopping by. No matter how hard I tried to ignore my emotions, I felt sad, so I went on with my life depressed and stuck in a rut.”
“But you didn’t stop because you wanted to. You stopped because you physically couldn’t. You have been in here for two weeks–two whole weeks–and I didn’t know till this morning when your mum called to ask why I hadn’t come to see you.”
I smile weakly and say
“You hadn’t even told her about our fight. You still had faith that things would work out. I just wish that I could turn back time to the moment before the accident and prevent it from happening. I know that wouldn’t fix our friendship, but at least you would be hale and hearty, lighting up the world around you as you always do.”
I lay my head down on the empty space beside her arm and just cry, silently wishing that this were just a dream.
I don’t know when I doze off but I am woken up by Alice’s mum.
“Hi, dear. How are you?”
Looking up at her, I can see the profound stress written on her face. She didn’t look like she had gotten any sleep or like she hadn’t been crying. Her short light brown hair is tainted with strands of grey hair. Her usually bright brown eyes, which she passed down to her daughter, were now dull and bland. I don’t know what makes me do what I am about to do but I do it anyway. I give her a tight hug.
At first, she is shocked, but she eventually returns the hug and I feel a few tears hit my back. We just stand there for a while, holding each other for support. Mrs. Ray has always been like a second mum to me right from childhood, and I hate seeing her go through this pain. What I hate more is the fact that I wasn’t there for her these past two weeks.
I draw back from the hug and say
“I’m sorry for not being around for you all this while. I didn’t know what had happened.”
“It’s fine, darling. What matters is that you are here now.”
She pauses to think for a while and then says
“You can stay with her tonight if you want. I just came to check on her and ask the doctor if there’s any improvement. I have to go back home because I don’t want to leave my husband, Jack, and Lisa alone.”
I had forgotten about Alice’s younger ones. I wonder how they are dealing with all this.
“I would love to stay. Thank you.”
She gives Alice a peck on her face and she does the same to me.
“Don’t stay up all night, okay?”
“I will try my best. Greet the family for me please.”
“I will, dear.”
She then leaves, quietly closing the door.
“Hi Alice. I’m still here.”
“I guess I don’t know what to say again, but I can’t sit in silence.”
“This is the part where I tell a superb flashback story, and you wake up miraculously. So let me give it a shot.”
I pause for a while thinking.
“Ray-Ray, I can’t pick out just one moment. Every moment with you was amazing: the time we ditched prom to hang out in your room listening to reggae, the time we tried to run away from home together but got caught at the bus-stop, the time we stayed up all night actually talking… That was the night we became sisters, Alice. The night I knew that I needed and wanted you in my life. The night I realized how lucky I am to have to have someone like you in my life. I need my sister back please.”
I look up at her unmoving face in hope and lower my head in despair.
“Who am I kidding? Too good to be true.”
I grasp her palm and place my head beside it.
“Just…Please Alice…wake up.”

“If you had a friend you knew you would never see again, what would you say? If you could do one last thing for someone you love, what would it be? Say it; do it; don’t wait…Nothing lasts forever.” – One Tree Hill

THE END

Hope you loved it!